


two views of a binary sunset

by strangesaturday



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Multi, the founding members of the Unique Perspectives club stay up too late and have a nice time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:33:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28055448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangesaturday/pseuds/strangesaturday
Summary: After a diplomatically significant day, Geordi and Deanna meet to take in a celestial event.
Relationships: Data/Geordi La Forge (background), Geordi La Forge & Deanna Troi, William Riker/Deanna Troi (background)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28
Collections: To Boldly Gift: Fics 2020





	two views of a binary sunset

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FullMind](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FullMind/gifts).



Deanna’s door whispered open before Geordi had a chance to ring.

“You awake?” He asked, and they grinned at each other. He could see her active mind from decks away, and she could feel his.

She retreated into her quarters and beckoned him in. “Is anyone else joining us? Data? Beverly?”

“Nope. Delivering a baby and night shift. Not respectively. Though I bet he could do it in a pinch.”

“I’m sure.” She wrapped a light robe over her pajamas and grabbed the nearest pair of shoes, which happened to be an elegant pair of heels from a diplomatic dinner the evening before. Rather, a few hours before. There is no true night on a starship, but as it was, they were nearing the middle of it. “How much time do we have?”

“Maybe thirty minutes.”

Deanna had a heel strapped halfway on before she kicked it off again. “Never mind. Let’s go.”

She stood and smiled expectantly. Geordi hesitated.

“You don’t mind that it’s just the two of us?

Deanna gave his arm an affectionate squeeze. “Of course not! In fact, we’d better be discreet and avoid picking up any hangers-on along the way. I don’t want anyone spoiling my quality time with you.”

Geordi smiled and took her hand.

On a starship you are never truly alone, either, but it was fun to pretend. They slunk down the half-darkened corridor, ducking into doorways and peering around corners— the counselor in stocking feet, the engineer tripping over a pair of suspiciously Holmesian slippers— and managed to avoid contact with a single soul.

As the turbolift doors slid closed behind them, Deanna drew in a sharp breath.

“What?”

“Will,” she whispered as if the first officer might yet hear her. “I can’t believe I didn’t sense him— a moment later and he would have seen us.”

Geordi focused through the turbolift doors and saw that it was true: Riker’s unmistakable towering frame, writ in luminous yellow and magenta, strode past the turbolift and down the corridor.

“Close call,” Geordi breathed.

They snickered all the way to deck 10.

Ten Forward’s wooden doors slid open, and they raced past them to safety. The lounge was empty and dark, the remnants of the diplomatic dinner long since cleared away. Only a banner remained, royal blue, emblazoned with the insignia of the United Federation of Planets. It read:

_A_ _Warm Welcome to the_ _People of_ _Gamma Tarandi_

Geordi indicated the banner with a nod. “I had one of those at my tenth birthday party.”

Deanna quirked an eyebrow. “Really? Just like this one?”

“Well, not _just_ like that one. Mine had a dog on it.”

“Ah, naturally.” Deanna moved behind the bar. “I believe we have enough time for a drink. Can I tempt you to join me?”

“No temptation necessary. I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

“Hmm...” Deanna drummed her nails on the side of the replicator. “Two mudslides, please.”

Geordi leaned an elbow on the bar, his face illuminated from below. “Hey— before the reception, what did the Tarandiin emissary say to you? I saw you making your ‘suffering a fool’ face.”

Deanna groaned. “Tholta spare me, I hope I wasn’t obvious.” She slid a glass in Geordi’s direction. “They wanted me to read their spouse and find out if the flame is still alive. If you have to ask, don’t you think you already have your answer?”

Geordi let out a low whistle. “Yikes. After the Altatian subminister asked to take my VISOR for a spin, I thought I’d have the trophy for ‘most obnoxious question fielded at a UFP membership party’ for life. But I think you just outdid me.”

“An honor, I’m sure.” Deanna held her glass aloft. “To suffering fools.”

“Somebody’s got to.”

They toasted.

Deanna looked across the room. “You’re right. These have got to be the best seats in the house. Shall we settle in?”

After a brief period of deliberation, they selected a viewport and huddled into its alcove, one in each corner. Geordi sipped his iced drink and shivered, undershirt and pajama pants suddenly inadequate.

Deanna tucked a knee to her chest. “Have you seen one of these before?”

“Only in simulations.” Geordi peered out the viewport, adjusting VISOR settings. “And never with a friend.”

Deanna fixed him with dark, scintillating eyes.

He shifted under her scrutiny. “What? Something on my face?”

She shook her head. “I was wondering if you remember the last time you watched a sunset from from solid ground.”

“Oh...” He rubbed his chin. “It must have been… last shore leave? I’m not sure. Is that bad?”

Deanna tossed her dark curls. “It just is. I’m not sure I can remember, either.” She extended a leg and pressed the bottom of her foot against his. “Geordi, when you think of your future, what do you think about?”

He look at her askance. “I think I know what you’re really asking.”

She shrugged and smiled.

“When I think of the future… I hardly used to think of it at all. Because of my parents’ careers, I was _in_ Starfleet long before I _joined_ Starfleet. I figured it would always be that way, and that’s okay. I’m happy with my life.”

“But now…?” Deanna prompted.

“But now, having… _someone—_ it gives me a reason to— well, I think I pushed the future away because one terrifying, unknown part of it was: will I ever find someone? And now, maybe I have. And I don’t have a reason to push away anymore. I think… I think there are lots of things I’d like to do in my life. With him. And on my own, too. It feels…” Geordi swirled the dregs at the bottom of his glass. “The future never felt closed-off, per se. Now, it just feels even more open.” He pushed his heel into hers, making her knee buckle. “There, is that what you wanted to hear? Was that a good answer, Counselor?”

“Yes,” she laughed. “In my profession we don’t generally grade our clients, but yes, that was an excellent answer.”

“Thank god, I was worried you’d make me try again.” He leaned his head against the viewport. “What about you? What do you think of when you think of the future?”

Deanna held her glass between steepled fingers. “Oh, too many things. My mother, my career— I could stay with Starfleet until I retire, or settle down somewhere and start a practice of my own… There are many options available, each with unique benefits and downsides. But, like you, I’m happy in the here and now. Truly.” She paused. “I can feel you pushing on me.”

Geordi shifted his leg. “I’m not!”

“No, not that. _Mentally.”_

It was Geordi’s turn to shrug.

She sighed. “Yes, I think of future partnerships as well. It’s not my number o— it’s not my top priority. For the most part, I’m satisfied with whatever romance comes my way. As far as _he_ goes…” She trailed off, examining the carpet.

“Do you two ever talk about… what comes next?”

Deanna’s face screwed up in thought. “We agreed not to, but that doesn’t stop the question hanging between us all the time. I sense it in his heart, in our shared thoughts… we don’t speak it out loud. It was different a few years ago, when the wounds were still healing. It made sense to maintain some emotional distance. Now, I feel very secure in our friendship, and there _is_ potential for a deep partnership to grow from it. But—” She bit at a fingernail. “I feel held back, not by the fear of being hurt again, but the fear of jeopardizing our friendship. Of losing what we built.”

Geordi gave a slow nod. “Uh huh. I can appreciate that.”

She covered her mouth with a fist and stared out into space.

“Hey.” He leaned forward and gripped her ankle. “You’ll figure it out. There’s plenty of time. Oh—!”

Deanna started at his sudden exclamation.

“Computer,” Geordi asked. “What’s the time?”

“0034 hours.”

“Okay!” he rubbed his palms together. “The view should start to get pretty breathtaking any second now.”

Deanna shook herself. “I can’t wait. Oh! I know what we need.” She scrambled to her feet and trotted back to the replicator.

“Wait, Deanna—”

“One large blanket. Cashmere. And— make it tartan, please. No, striped.”

“Deanna—!”

“Coming, coming.” She scampered back, unfurled the blanket behind her like a cape and enveloped them both in it. “This is a special moment, and it’s important to me that we are as cozy as possible for it.”

“Deanna.” Under the blanket, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “It’s starting.”

From their vantage point in orbit around Gamma Tarandi, the first of the system’s twin suns was beginning to set. The binary stars shirred across the sky at a slight angle, one just behind the other, overlapping more and more as they approached the horizon. The nearer orb, brilliant white, brushed the planet’s surface and bled ultramarine light along its edge. The planet’s ocean took on an opalescent sheen like the side of a great fish. The far orb, brilliant green, gradually picked up speed as it passed further behind its sister, transforming into a crescent, then passing behind it entirely, leaving only an emerald halo. A cluster of asteroids drifting outside the Enterprise’s shields lit up bright blue and sparkled as light played across their pockmarked surfaces.

Deanna leaned into Geordi, rapt. “What do you see?”

“For once, pretty much the same thing you do… plus a bunch of other information. Radiation, clouds of tachyon particles. But mostly, a lot of blues and greens.” The white sun began to turn aqua around its perimeter, as if leaching the color out of its twin. He wrapped the blanket more tightly around them. “What do you feel?”

“On the ship,” Deanna hummed, “a lot of dreaming. A lot of working. An atmosphere of… drowsy excitement left over from the party this evening. No more than a dozen others watching this right now, with us. I feel your companionship, which is endlessly pleasant. And,” she squeezed his hand and squinted in concentration, “the faintest impression far below us— a swathe of the planet’s population winding down for bed.”

“What’s it like to feel someone fall asleep?”

“Sublime. The sensation of a mind quieting is unlike anything else. There is… a profound intimacy, knowing the sleeper trusts you deeply enough to show you their most vulnerable state.”

“Is that how it felt when I fell asleep on you in the shuttle last week?”

She laughed and dug a knuckle into his ribs. “Yes, it was just like that.”

The green sun had now fully disappeared behind the planet, and the white sun was nothing more than a rapidly diminishing semicircle. They watched in silence as the ocean glimmered into darkness and the blue-green glow around the planet’s perimeter faded away. The last of the semicircle slipped behind the horizon, and as it did, there was a blinding flash of fuchsia light— Deanna gasped— and then there was nothing but space.

They sat together under the blanket. Geordi breathed in, and Deanna breathed out. She placed a palm against the viewport. Geordi watched the stillness and motion of the capillaries beneath her skin, the purr of living tissue. Her hand shifted from orange to yellow, its warmth stolen away by the viewport’s glassy surface.

“What are the odds of witnessing something like this,” Deanna mused. “The confluence of events leading to what we just saw?”

“I couldn’t tell you. What are the odds of any wonderful thing?”

“I know someone who could answer our questions.”

“Yeah.” Geordi rested his head against Deanna’s mass of curls. “Sometimes it’s better not to know, and just let yourself be amazed.”

Deanna lifted her hand from the viewport, entwined her fingers with his. “I tend to agree. You’re a very dear friend, Geordi.”

“You too, Deanna.”

They gazed into space, the view no longer no longer breathtaking— merely spectacular.

Deanna’s head jerked back. “Oh! Oh, gods— I drifted off just now, I don’t believe it— computer, time?”

“0104 hours.”

She moaned. “I have an appointment before bridge duty tomorrow.”

Geordi stretched and yawned. “And I need to get up early and look at a couple of buggy power transfer conduits before the alpha crew shows up. Not that I don’t trust my team, it’s just— well, you know me. I guess we’d better call it a night.”

They disentangled themselves from their snug arrangement, placed their glasses back in the replicator and meandered into the corridor.

In the turbolift, Deanna rested her head on Geordi’s shoulder. “This was lovely. Thank you for sharing your first binary sunset with me.”

“Thanks for sharing yours with me. Good luck with your morning appointment.”

The lift stopped at deck 9, and Deanna paused in the doorway. “Geordi, wait— before we say good night, what do you think of making one more stop?”

His eyebrows raised above the VISOR. “Where to?”

☾

The new baby was named Stella. The information populated in his mind as Dr. Crusher updated the ship’s manifest.

The twin suns’ performance had been as magnificent viewed from the bridge as from Ten Forward, diminished only by lack of someone to share it with: night duty was lonely work. He is a fortunate nightwatchman, then, whose friends keep him in their thoughts.

When Riker reported for alpha shift, he found Data sitting in the captain’s chair, a striped blanket folded neatly across his lap.

“You awake?” Riker asked, grinning waggishly.

“Yes, sir,” Data replied, handing him a PADD. “I am.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed, and Happy Holidays!


End file.
